1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parking brake lever apparatus to be mounted on a vehicle, such as a saddle-type vehicle.
2. Description of Background Art
JP-A-2000-72062 discloses a parking brake lever apparatus in which a base plate having a lever supporting portion for supporting a parking brake lever is fixed to a steering head pipe of a motorcycle and the parking brake lever is pivotally supported on a lever supporting portion of this base plate, whereby a parking brake is brought into a locked state or an unlocked state in response to the rotation of the parking brake lever.
In the parking brake lever apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2000-72062, a latchet mechanism for restricting the rotation of the parking brake lever is configured by pivotally supporting an engaging claw on an engaging member supporting shaft provided substantially at the center of the parking brake lever in the longitudinal direction, and forming a lever engaging portion for locking the engaging claw on the base plate, and is provided with a release button configured to release the restriction of the rotation of the parking brake lever by the latchet mechanism at a distal end of the parking brake lever.
This parking brake lever apparatus is configured in such a manner that if the parking brake lever is rotated to a locked side once, the parking brake lever cannot be rotated even when an attempt is made to rotate the same to an unlocked side, that is, the parking brake lever cannot be rotated to the unlocked side unless the release button provided at the distal end of the parking brake lever is pressed inward. Therefore, the parking brake lever is not released unless an operator performs an operation with an intension to release the parking brake lever. Hence, it may be said that this structure is preferable as the parking brake lever apparatus.
However, in the parking brake lever apparatus according to JP-A-2000-72062 described above, since various members (such as the engaging claw which constitutes the latchet mechanism, a locking portion of the engaging claw, and the release button) are arranged along the direction of the radius of a rotating shaft of the parking brake lever, the apparatus is upsized radially of the rotating shaft of the parking brake lever. Therefore, when mounting the parking brake lever apparatus on a relatively small saddle-type vehicle, there arises a problem in terms of layout such that these members cannot be arranged well in the vicinity of a bar handle.